A Bit Dramatic for my Taste
by Samtastic 3.0
Summary: When the sisters find Lincoln's audio diary and discover he is apparently dealing with depression and suicidal thoughts, they race to save their brother before he does something drastic. Rated teen for strong themes.
1. Chapter 1

**A new idea I had.**

* * *

Lincoln sighed as he turned off his tape recorder, "Well, that was exhausting. But at least it's done."

"KIDS, DINNER!" Dad called up the stairs. Lincoln smiled and hopped out of his chair and headed out the door. Before exiting his room, he made sure to leave a note on the tape recorder: **LINCOLN'S AUDIO DIARY. DO NOT TOUCH! (ESPECIALLY LOLA!)**

At that, the white-haired boy exited his room and headed downstairs to dinner.

* * *

After dinner, Lincoln had gone to Clyde's to watch _ARGGH!_ His parents, knowing the show ended at 8:00, stated his curfew was extended 10 minutes so he could get home.

While he was out, the rest of the sisters were doing their normal Sunday night routines: Lynn was hurrying to finish her homework that she had put off all weekend, Luna was getting one last jam session in, Luan was practicing some of her comedy routine that she'd use in the cafeteria tomorrow, Lisa was going over her lessons for her lecture, the usual.

Lori was busy frantically searching her room for something, something very important to her. "Where is it?!" She whisper-yelled, needing to find it but not wanting her sisters to hear her.

"Whatcha looking for, Lori?" Leni asked, looking up from the fashion magazine she was reading.

"My diary!" Lori snapped, "I can't find it anywhere! Have you seen it?"

"Yeah," Leni nodded, and Lori smiled…until Leni continued, "I saw you writing in it yesterday. It's a nice yellow book with pink trim along the edges, and a silver lock."

Lori sighed, "I meant, have you seen it RECENTLY?"

"Oh!" Leni said, getting it, before quickly shaking her head, "No."

"Ugh!" Lori groaned, continuing to search through her room, even going so far as to lift her mattress, "Do you think anyone would have taken it?"

"I don't see how," Leni said, flipping through her magazine, "You never let that thing out of your sight. The only way someone could take it is if they wait for you to leave your room for an indefinite amount of time, like dinner."

Lori paused as she thought over what her roommate had said. She knew she had it earlier in the day, and she had hardly been out of her room. But she WAS one of the last ones to go down for dinner. She thought back to 40 minutes ago, when the majority of her siblings had already headed downstairs for dinner. She had been in the middle of a conversation with her Boo-Boo Bear, and had had to wrap it up. As she exited her room and closed the door, she absent-mindedly looked down to the end of the hall, where she saw Lincoln pausing at his open door, doing something at his desk. She had thought nothing of it as she headed downstairs.

"Lincoln!" She growled. Despite it never happening to her before, Lori had seen more than enough TV and movies to know that little brothers ALWAYS stole older sisters' diaries.

Lori knew Lincoln had gone to Clyde's, so she couldn't confront him at the moment. But she COULD search his room for proof. Then, it would just be a simple decision: turn him into a human pretzel and THEN rat him out to Mom and Dad, or rat him out BEFORE turning him into a human pretzel. Either way, she was gonna enjoy the end to her weekend.

As she stomped out of her room and down the hall, Leni turned another page in her magazine, and one of those ads fluttered out. She tried to grab it, but missed, and it fell to the ground. Leaning over her bed to grab it, she noticed Lori's diary under the night stand in between their beds.

"Huh, this is that book Lori was looking for," She said, grabbing it and placing it on her sister's bed. She would have called after Lori, telling her Lincoln didn't take the diary, but she was distracted by an article about eye liner, "Ooh!"

* * *

Lori stomped down the hall and threw open Lincoln's door. Of course, being just a big closet, she was able to instantly scan the room and notice that Lincoln hadn't left the book in plain sight. Quickly closing his door, lest one of the sisters or parents were to enter the hall and notice that she was going through Lincoln's room, Lori began doing a thorough search. The drawers were a no go, and it wasn't under the covers, mattress, or in the pillow.

"UGH! He must have taken it to Clyde's so they could look at it while they watch their dumb show. Little twerp!" Lori groaned as she flopped back on her brother's bed. She had the only key to the lock, but she knew that didn't tend to stop snoops. Looking at his clock, she saw it was 7:30, meaning his show just started, and it would take a couple minutes to get home after it ended at 8:00, so that meant she had to wait. Unless, of course, she wanted to go there herself and confront him now, but she wasn't sure she wanted to deal with Clyde getting a nosebleed and fainting in her presence AGAIN (honestly, she needed to sit him down and explain what he felt for her was just his first real crush and that they were NEVER gonna happen, but that's a story for a different day).

Figuring she would go talk to Mom and Dad about what Lincoln had done, Lori sat up and turned so she could stand up…when she spotted the tape recorder on Lincoln's desk, right in between his laptop and backpack. Curious, she got up and saw the note, and a devious, Grinch-like smile formed on her face.

"Well, little brother," She chuckled, picking the tape recorder up and eagerly flopping back down on Lincoln's bed, "You wanna try to find out my embarrassing secrets, then I get to return the favor." Smirking, she picked Bun-Bun off the edge of the bed and stroked his head, acting like a supervillain with her pet white cat.

She pressed the PLAY button…

* * *

As the sisters did their usual evening antics, getting that last bit of weekend in before bedtime at 9:00, the door to Lincoln's room slowly opened. No one noticed as the eldest Loud sibling slowly shuffled out, a look of unease and dread on her face.

Lola and Lana fought over one of Lola's dolls that Lana wanted to destroy, their fight cloud rolling past Lori, who didn't even notice. Lynn threw a football down the stairs, barely missing Lori's head as it flew past her. Lori got to her room and pushed open the door, not even flinching when Luan's bucket of water fell on her, drenching her. She simply walked over to her bed and plopped down, ignoring the fact that she was laying on her diary and the fact that her sheets were getting wet.

"Lori, is everything ok?" Leni asked, noticing her sister's oddly calm and distant behavior.

Lori was silent for several minutes, during which Leni grew more and more worried as she tried to get her BFF to say something, anything.

"Leni…" Lori finally muttered, "I…I know we mess with him sometimes, and we girls usually stick together, even during the times when we were obviously the ones to screw up, but…do you think…do you think we're good sisters to Lincoln?"

Leni was taken aback by the question. "Well…" She said after a moment of contemplation, "I guess for the most part we are. Like you said, there are times we've ganged up on him, but some of those times he's deserved it."

"Right," Lori nodded numbly, "But still, he…he knows we all love him, right?"

"Well, yeah," Leni said, smiling, "After all, he's our only brother, so he's gotta know we love him by how overprotective we are of him."

Lori said nothing at this, instead choosing to stare straight up at the ceiling. Leni was growing a bit nervous. The second-eldest Loud sister may not be very bright, but she could tell when something was bothering one of her siblings.

Leni slowly got off of her bed and shuffled to Lori's bed, plopping down next to her sister (making sure not to sit on a wet portion of the sheet) and placed a hand on her shoulder. Lori looked up at her, though there was a glossy, uneasy look in her eyes.

"Lori, what happened? I found your diary, so why were you in Linky's room for so long? Did you…did you find something bad?" Leni hoped her brother wasn't in trouble, yet the look on Lori's face seemed to imply he was.

Lori said nothing as she stared at Leni for a good few minutes, before finally sighing, "Tell the others to get in here for an emergency sibling meeting. I'll be right back." At that, the eldest sister got up and made her way out of the hall, back to her brother's room. Leni frowned at this odd, evasive behavior, but simply did what Lori asked and went to fetch the rest of her sisters.

* * *

5 minutes later, the sisters were all seated in Loir and Leni's room. They were confused as to why Lori had called an emergency sibling meeting, especially since Lincoln wasn't home. However, Leni had told them that Lori seemed off, and that they would have to wait for her to tell them what was going on herself.

Finally, Lori entered, looking worse for wear. "I just put Lily down. She didn't need to hear this." She sighed as she looked at Lucy and the twins, "Honestly, you don't need to, either. I think you guys should go to your rooms and let us talk this over."

"No fair!" The twins cried, while Lucy muttered a sigh.

"I assume that you think as a toddler I do not need to hear this," Lisa said, adjusting her glasses, "Yet as the smartest person in the household, you think I should."

"Yeah, that's about right," Lori sighed, before looking at the other three youngsters in the room, "I really don't think you need to hear this, but in all honesty, it's a family thing, so that's the only reason I'm letting you stay. But if at any point you feel upset or…worse, then you are free to leave."

By now, each of the girls was beginning to get more and more worried. Finally, Luna built up the courage to ask, "Lori…is something wrong with Lincoln? Is he ok?"

Lori sighed again, looking at the floor for a moment before turning to her sisters, "No, he's not. He's in a lot of trouble."

"Is this something we should get Mom and Dad for?" Lynn asked nervously.

"Yeah, we should," Lori sighed, "But I think it's best we keep them out of this for the moment." At that, the oldest pulled Lincoln's tape recorder out of her pocket, before turning around and locking the door. She then walked over to her bed and sat down in between Luna and Lucy. She sighed again as she looked all around the room at her sisters' worried faces, "Girls, prepare yourselves. We're entering some seriously mature territory here."

They all nodded, and Lori pressed the PLAY button.

" _Lincoln Loud here. 11-years-old, middle child and only son of the Loud family with 10 sisters. All my life I've felt…like I don't belong, like I'm meaningless. On the rare occasion I've brought this up to my sisters, they assure me I'm one of a kind, and there's no one else like me._

 _Looking at my sisters, though, it gets hard. Each of them pretty much has their life planned out. Each of them is sure to be a big success in the future. But what about me? What am I good at? Where am I going? Luna is an aspiring rock star, Lynn is an amazing athlete, Luan is a great comedian, Lisa is a genius, etc. I…am my sisters' brother._

 _In all honesty, I think about ending it more than once a day. Usually while I'm getting ready for school in the morning I think about taking the toaster into the bathroom and dropping it in the bathtub. On the weekends when we go to the park, I imagine either climbing the tallest tree and jumping off of it, or cutting through the park to the road and just waiting for a big truck to drive by so I can jump in front of it. Sometimes at night I think about sneaking into my parents' room and taking a bottle of their sleeping pills and just chugging them all down in one gulp._

 _When am I ever truly happy? For about 5, maybe 10 if I'm lucky, seconds right after I wake up, between awake and asleep, before I remember who I am and what my life is like. No dreams, no realizations. Just a short period where I exist, and that's it._

 _And then there's my pal Rusty. This one day we were hanging out at his place, and he was showing me his dad's collection of vintage movie posters in the guest bedroom. I noticed the safe in the back of the closet, and he told me his dad kept a handgun in there, in case anyone ever tries to break in. Chatting with his dad over dinner, I deduced the safe combination. I excused myself to the restroom and snuck into the guest room, opening the safe and taking out the gun. I'm no gun expert, but it's the kind that you jam a cartridge in, and ya got seven shots before you need to reload._

 _I stared at it for a good minute, before I put it in my mouth and just kept it there for a moment. I've done that at least half-a-dozen times since then. After all, if that gun is the last thing I'm ever gonna taste, then I wanna make sure my tongue enjoys it._

 _I truly think the only reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet is my sisters. We don't always get along (heck, there's usually at least one argument in the house per day), but I love them and I know they love me. And I guess…I guess I don't wanna end it because I know they'll move on. Sure, they'll be sad at first, but their lives will continue. That's kinda sad, but completely true. When a person dies, those around them mourn, before they immediately pick up where they left off. And even if my sisters seem mad at me almost on a daily basis, I just can't accept the idea that they could function and live their lives without me around. Does that make me a bad person? Does that make me selfish?_

 _I guess I'll just wait and see. At the time I'm making this, I'm more than certain I won't be alive at this time next month. So…um…I guess, Lincoln Loud, out."_

By the time the recording was done, most of the girls had shocked looks on their faces. Lola and Lana were clutching each other in fear, Luan had tears in her eyes, Lucy's eyes were so wide with shock that they were peering through her hair, Leni and Luna were sitting where they were, dumbstruck, Lori was clearly upset at having to have heard the whole thing a second time, Lisa was staring at the tape recorder with her jaw dropped, unsure of what to even think at the moment, and Lynn was clutching her head and staring at her lap, not even sure if what she just heard was real.

It was a good five minutes before any of them spoke.

"All this time," Luna sighed, "He's been hiding these feelings all this time. How could none of us have known?"

"Depression is…it's very dangerous," Lisa spoke up, still staring at the tape recorder, "Most people who suffer from it don't wish to be helped (or in their eyes, pitied), so they learn to hide it with ease. Plus…" The genius paused, looking at her Gothic sister, "With someone around who is regularly depressed about one thing or another, it would be easy to ignore hidden depression."

Lucy frowned at Lisa, yet said nothing, instead choosing to turn away, knowing now was not the time to start an argument.

"All those times Lincoln called himself "the man with the plan" and did something to make himself stand out," Lynn sighed, "We thought they were cries for attention. But they were cries for help. And we were so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we ignored him."

"We have to tell Mommy and Daddy," Lola said, trying not to cry.

"Yeah, they'll know what to do," Lana said, for once completely agreeing with her twin.

"But, dudes," Luna shook her head, "If we tell them, they'll just put Lincoln in therapy. And if this is as bad as it sounds, they may check him into one of those homes for mentally unstable kids."

"We can't let that happen to Lincoln. That would be totally messed up," Luan forced a chuckle, "Get it?" A couple of the girls frowned at their comedian of a sister, somewhat appalled she would try to make a joke at a time like this.

"Look," Lori sighed, realizing tensions and fears were rising between her sisters, "I think we shouldn't tell Mom and Dad about this, at least not yet."

"Lori's right," Leni nodded, "We made this mess, now we need to fix it. We'll show Lincoln just how loved and appreciated he is around here, and then he'll HAVE to not blow his brains out."

A couple of the others recoiled in disgust at the ditzy blonde's casual mention of their brother's possible gruesome suicide, but they all nodded.

"From now on, this isn't the Loud house," Lori said, determination in her eyes, "This is the Lincoln house!"

* * *

At 8:07, Lincoln entered his house, slightly out of breath due to jogging to get home on time. He was slightly bummed that he and Clyde couldn't talk about the newest episode of _ARGGH!_ right after it ended, but at least they could talk over the walkies, so it was only a minor bummer. As he headed upstairs, he noticed it was oddly quiet in the house.

"I'm home!" He called out, heading into his room. He noticed that Bun-Bun was on the floor, so he bent down to pick his toy up, "Odd, don't remember you being on the floor before I left, buddy." Shrugging, Lincoln tossed the stuffed rabbit back to his place at the foot of the bed before jumping on it himself, relaxing as he grabbed his walkie.

"Man-with-a-plan to Nosebleeder, come in," He said as he grabbed his walkie, "Come in, Nosebleeder."

At that moment, there was a knock at Lincoln's door. "Yeah?" He called, somewhat surprised that one of his sisters had actually knocked instead of just barging in.

"Linky?" The twins poked their heads in, looking at their big brother with smiles.

"What's up, guys?" He asked, still waiting for Clyde to respond.

"We were wondering…" Lana began.

"If you could help us with our homework, big brother?" Lola finished, batting her eyelashes.

"Um…" Lincoln was a bit taken back at the request, "Wouldn't you rather ask Lisa?"

"We would but…um…" Lola looked to Lana for assistance.

"Lisa is too…snooty and…big mouthed," Lana said, looking somewhat nervous, "We want someone who will help us and not act like we're idiots just because we don't get it."

"Oh," Lincoln thought it over for a moment, and realized that made sense. Lisa did have a massive superiority complex, which was the main reason Lincoln himself hardly ever asked for her help with his homework. "Sure," he said, shrugging. At that moment, Clyde finally picked up, but Lincoln replied he had to help the twins, and they could talk about _ARGGH!_ at lunch tomorrow.

While Lincoln was by no means a genius, he was more than capable of helping Lola and Lana with their homework, seeing as they were merely in First Grade. Once he was done, the twins gratefully hugged their brother and told him he was the best.

"Just happy to help, guys," Lincoln said, smiling as he tussled their hair.

As Lincoln exited the twins' room and headed back into his room, he heard, "Hey, bro!" He turned to see Luna exiting her room and making her way down the hall to him.

"Hey, Luna, what's up?"

"I just wanted to tell ya I love you," Luna said, wrapping her brother in a hug.

"I love you, too, sis," Lincoln said, returning the hug. While he was a bit surprised by his sister's seemingly out of nowhere declaration of love, he wasn't gonna reject it. He loved his sisters, and honestly thought that they all needed to say it more often.

At that, Luna released her brother and headed downstairs, while Luan exited her room carrying her laptop. She grinned upon seeing her brother.

"Linc!" She exclaimed, happily walking over to him, "Look at all the hits my page has gotten." She showed him the page, which was had a significant increase in views since the birthday party the two had performed at the previous day. Just as he was about to congratulate his comedian of a sister, he noticed something.

" _Lincoln Out Loud_?" He looked at the title, which was the _LOL_ text, with Luan's name substituted for _Laugh_ , "Why'd you change it?"

"Oh," Luan casually shrugged, "You've just been doing such a great job as my assistant these past few weeks that I figured you deserved more credit. Don't worry, all my subscribers know it's the same page, and there's still a link to Funny Business."

"Wow, thanks, Luan," Lincoln said, touched that his sister would do something like that for him.

"Don't mention it, Linc," Luan said, pecking him on the cheek before heading back to her room. Lincoln smiled as he entered his room, glad to have had a peaceful night with his sisters, as opposed to the usual drama of the household.

As soon as Lincoln's bedroom door was closed, the sisters all poked their heads out of their rooms. Lola, Lana, Luna, and Luan nodded, and the rest of the sisters smirked, with Lori giving a thumb's-up.

* * *

When Lincoln exited his room the next morning, he got in line behind Lynn. Just as he was about to ask her if she wanted to thumb wrestle to pass the time, the sisters all stepped aside, telling Lincoln the bathroom was all his. Lori exited, telling him she made sure to save him some hot water. Confused, yet mostly grateful, Lincoln hurried and took his shower.

Upon entering the kitchen for breakfast, Lincoln was surprised by the aroma of an actual cooked breakfast, rather than the usual cereal and toast. Laid out at the adults table was bacon, eggs, hash browns, French toast, and orange juice. Lincoln felt his mouth water at the sight of it all.

"Dig in, Bro," Luna said handing him a plate.

"Thanks, Luna," Lincoln said, eagerly piling his plate. However, he stopped suddenly and turned to his rock-loving sister, asking, "Is it someone's birthday?" He didn't THINK he had forgotten anyone's birthday, but in such a big family, one couldn't be too sure.

"No," Luna shook her head casually, "We just thought it seemed like a big breakfast type of day."

"Oh, ok," Lincoln said, shrugging a he finished piling his plate. He then sat at the table and waited for his sisters to get their food.

"Don't worry about waiting for us, Linky," Leni said, "Go ahead and dig in." The rest of the girls nodded their heads, so Lincoln went ahead and started chowing down.

The sisters smirked at each other as they watched their brother eat, glad their plan to make Lincoln feel special seemed to be working.

As they ate, the siblings let Lincoln lead the conversation, and he told them about his show last night. They all made sure to listen carefully, nodding and voicing their own thoughts. It made Lincoln feel good knowing his sisters were so interested in one of his hobbies.

After breakfast, everyone got ready to leave. As they exited the house, Lori nodded to the girls, who all hung back as Lincoln headed to Vanzilla. Upon opening the back door, Lincoln paused as he noticed he was alone. Turning around, he saw his sisters walk up to the van and act like nothing unusual had happened. Lincoln was about to hop in the shotgun, but Leni beat him to it. Slowly, the rest of the sisters filled up the van, until the only seat left…was the Sweet Spot.

No one said anything as Lincoln hesitantly slid by Lynn into the Sweet Spot. He was a little on edge, wondering if they were waiting for him to take the best seat so they could pounce on him to each try and claim it for themselves. Thankfully, that did not appear to be the case. Once he was buckled in, Lori asked if everyone was ready, to which they replied they were. Lori started up Vanzilla and pulled out of the driveway.

"Hey, Lynn?" Lincoln tapped his sporty sister on the shoulder, causing her to look up from her phone, which was playing a sports real, "Did I…uh…did I forget my birthday again?"

A couple of the sisters chuckled at that, recalling how when Lincoln was 7, he had gotten the mumps and had to lay in bed for a few days. Because of this, he missed about a week of school and had to spend the whole weekend catching up on his homework. Then, after an exhausting Monday at school, he just wanted to take a nap before dinner. But Lori told him that Mom and Dad were both working late and she was in charge of dinner, and made him be her special helper in the kitchen. While Lincoln was sprinkling some spices into the pasta sauce, Lori said she had to go take care of something else and for him to just keep stirring the sauce. Then, after dinner was ready, Lincoln tiredly walked into the dining room to eat, only to be shocked when all his sisters, Mom, Dad, Pop-Pop, and Clyde all yelled out "SURPRISE" while standing under a banner reading "HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY LINCOLN!" Since then, the girls would occasionally tease Lincoln about having forgotten his own birthday, but it was all in fun.

"Nah, bro, we're just all in a really good mood, and since you're such an awesome brother, you're the one we're choosing to aim those positive feelings towards," Lynn said, smiling at her brother, who returned the gesture, "Hey, after school, ya wanna hang out? We can play football, baseball, basketball…" Lynn noticed Lori glaring at her through the rearview mirror, "Or play some video games or read comics." She forced a large smile onto her face, which Lincoln found a bit odd, but didn't question.

"I appreciate the offer, Lynn," Lincoln said, a small smile on his face, "But I've got plans. Another time, maybe?"

"Sure," Lynn nodded, "Whenever you want, bro."

At that, the two went back to their own devices, Lynn watching her sports real, Lincoln just staring out the window.

As they pulled up to the elementary school, Lincoln couldn't help but wonder what was going on with his sisters; sure, he wasn't against this nice treatment they seemed to be giving him, but it was just so…out of place for them to be doing so.

"Eh," he muttered, grabbing his backpack and exiting the van, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess."

* * *

School went pretty much the same as it always did. Towards the end of the day, Lincoln was actually feeling a little nervous. The homework that he had been assigned over the weekend had been pretty tricky, and he was sure he had gotten a bit of it wrong. As the class was waiting for the final bell of the day to ring, Mrs. Johnson began passing out the now graded homework. Lincoln could only hope he didn't flat-out fail.

As Mrs. Johnson placed the papers on the students' desks, she made small comments on how they did. Most of them were along the lines of, "Good job, maybe go over the material again if you get a chance." When she got to Lincoln's desk, however, she smiled, "Great job, Lincoln, you got the highest score in the whole class."

"Way to go, buddy," Clyde said, flashing him a thumb's-up. Lincoln was surprised that he apparently did better than everyone else; he sure didn't think so when he was actually doing the work.

However, upon taking a look at his seat, Lincoln instantly understood how he had gotten a perfect score: he hadn't actually done any of the problems, Lisa had. He could easily tell that she had forged his handwriting, and he was kinda ticked off. Lisa had explicitly stated she would only help her siblings, after Mom and Dad had forbidden her from "doing everyone else's homework because she was bored".

"Mrs. Jonson?" Lincoln raised his hand, annoyed he would have to come clean and probably end up failing (and maybe even getting a detention) if Mrs. Jonson wouldn't fully let him explain he had not known his sister had done this.

"Well, class," Mrs. Jonson addressed the classroom, not having heard Lincoln, "I'll admit I'm a little disappointed in the final scores of this weekend's homework. As such, there will be a test over the material this Friday, to make sure you fully understand it." The class groaned. "However, Lincoln, as the only student who got a perfect score on the homework, you will be exempt from the test."

Lincoln slowly put his hand down, simply muttering a thanks to his teacher as the final bell rang. The students began filing out of the classroom in a hurry. Lincoln trailed behind, a little guilty about taking credit for the perfect score, but figuring one time wouldn't be such a bad thing. He would just have to talk to Lisa about it when he got home.

"Yo, Linc, ya ready to head to my place?" Rusty appeared beside his white-haired friend as they exited the building.

Lincoln smiled a nervous smile, "Sure am, Rusty. Gotta get ready for the big day, after all. I gotta tell ya, I'm nervous as heck."

"I am, too," Rusty nodded, throwing his arm around Lincoln's shoulders, "But hey, by the end of this week, everyone will know you're not just your sisters' brother. You'll be known as Lincoln Loud, the kid who doesn't take nothin' from nobody!"

"Right," Lincoln nodded, pausing as he spotted someone rather familiar through the crowd, "Ugh, it's Chandler. I'm definitely gonna be happy when Friday comes. Then I won't have to deal with him anymore."

"Right," Rusty nodded, "Did you talk to him at lunch, let him know you're not gonna let him push you around anymore?"

"Yeah," Lincoln nodded, "But I don't think he took me seriously."

"Well, with what you've got planed, he'll know that's a mistake he shouldn't make," Rusty said, chuckling darkly, "I can't wait to see the look on his face when it happens."

"Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people will be surprised when they see what I've got planned," Lincoln chuckled.

As the two boys walked out the door, neither noticed Lana pop her head out of the garbage can she had been digging through. She had a look of unease on her face as she stared after her brother.

"I gotta tell the others!"

* * *

"Slow down, dude!" Luna said, as all the sisters looked at Lana in concern, "You're SURE you heard Lincoln talking like he's gonna do something serious?"

"Yeah," Lana nodded fearfully, "He and Rusty were talking like they didn't want anyone to hear, and they said things like Lincoln would be remembered as more than just our brother, and that Chandler would know that it was a mistake messing with Lincoln. And Lincoln even said he was extremely nervous about what was going to happen."

All the girls looked at each other, worried about what their brother was apparently going to do at the end of the week.

"We gotta tell Mom and Dad," Leni spoke up, "They'll know what to do."

"No!" Luna cried, gaining her sisters' attention, "If we do that, they'll just force Lincoln to get help, and he won't take it."

"Luna's right, guys," Lori nodded, "We need to make sure Lincoln feels comfortable enough to come to us for help. We just gotta keep making him feel loved." Though hesitant, the rest of the girls slowly nodded in agreement.

At that moment, the front door opened, and they all heard Lincoln yell out, "I'M HOME!"

"Huddle!" Lori commanded, at which all the girls gathered around her, "Ok, we need to make sure Lincoln feels appreciated, but not smothered. He's our brother, and we love him." The girls all nodded, and Lori continued, "Also, I don't have a problem with him, but whether or not he knows exactly what's going on with Lincoln, we need to keep our brother away from Rusty for the time being. Or at the very least, make sure he Lincoln doesn't go to Rusty's house."

"Should one of us go there?" Lynn asked, "And take the gun so Linc can't find it?"

"I could do that," Lisa spoke up, "Send Lucy with a pair of my surveillance spy glasses and my code cracker. Using her ability to go unnoticed and my genius, we could get the safe open and hide the gun where our brother would never be able to find it: under one of our mattresses. Preferably yours or Leni's, since Lincoln isn't allowed in here unless invited."

"No," Lori shook her head, "We'll save that as a last resort. For now, just keep him from going there after school, and Lucy and the twins can run interference AT school. The rest of us will make sure that his after-school hours are booked. Got it?" The rest of the girls nodded, and they broke up the huddle.

Carefully, Leni went to her door and peaked out. She noticed Lincoln clutching his backpack and nervously looking around, before darting into his room and closing the door.

"We're good," The ditzy sister nodded, and they all quickly entered their own rooms, with Lynn going and knocking on Lincoln's door.

"Hey, Linc, ya up for hanging out now?" Lynn asked as she knocked, "I wanna see if I can whoop your butt at one of your video games."

After a moment of silence, Lincoln opened his door and smirked at his sports-loving sister, "Sorry, Lynn, but you're going down!" At that, the two headed downstairs, Lincoln eager to finally beat his athletic sister at something.

* * *

 **So, looks like Lincoln is having some serious depression issues. Hopefully his sisters can help him before something drastic happens.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Before I start, I'd like to thank a guest reviewer, Dlh024, for reminding me of something last chapter. Lincoln's audio diary is in fact inspired by Stan Smith's deep revelation from the American Dad episode "The Adventures of Twill Ongenbone and his Boy Jabari". I was just in a hurry to put up the last chapter, and forgot to mention that in the closing Author's Notes.**

 **Anyway, enjoy this next chapter :)  
**

* * *

Lincoln smirked as he knocked out Lynn for the third time in a row. He loved the fact that he was able to beat her at wrestling, even if it was just video game wrestling.

"Man!" Lynn complained, looking down, "You're on top of this game, bro. You're like, a champ."

"Don't know if I'd go that far," Lincoln shrugged, before grinning at his athletic sister, "But it is nice to be able to kick your butt."

"Yeah, yeah," Lynn chuckled, "Just enjoy it while ya can, Linc. I'll get the hang of it one day." In truth, Lynn had easily figured out the controls right away, and could have whooped Lincoln's butt at the game each of these three rounds they had played. However, considering he was apparently suicidal (if not worse), Lynn had come to the obvious conclusion to only give 50%, thus letting her brother win and feel good about himself.

"Sure ya will," Lincoln said dismissively, before getting up, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling a bit peckish." At that, the sole Loud brother made his way into the kitchen, while Lynn sighed in relief, glad her plan appeared to have worked.

As Lincoln left his sporty sister and entered the kitchen, he did have to admit to himself it felt good to actually beat Lynn at something, considering any sport the two attempted to play resulted in her winning (he came close to beating her at bowling once, but in the last round she got a strike out of nowhere while he failed to pick up a 7-10 split). It was just such a nice feeling. He could only hope that Lynn wouldn't go through her "sore loser" phase again. Ever since the whole board game incident a couple weeks ago, the athlete had promised to be a better winner AND loser whenever she played games.

Heading to the fridge, Lincoln figured he'd make himself a piece of peanut butter toast for a snack, seeing as dinner would be in just a couple hours.

As he opened the fridge to get the peanut butter, he heard someone enter the kitchen and stop at the door. "Greetings, Male Sibling."

"Hey, Lis," Lincoln replied, grabbing the PB jar and closing the door, "What's up?"

"I request your assistance with an experiment," The child prodigy replied, "If you would be so kind?"

In the living room, Lynn gasped upon hearing Lisa. What the heck was she doing?! They needed to make Lincoln feel GOOD, and one of Lisa's freaky experiments would NOT do that.

"Er…I'm gonna have to pass, Lisa," Lincoln said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck, "Sorry."

Lynn, now crouched behind the doorway, sighed in relief at hearing that. Now, all she had to do was get Lisa out of there so she could do some damage control. Maybe tell Lincoln that she felt he needed a reward for beating her at his video game, so she would do his chores or something. But before she could…

"If I may, dear sibling?" Lisa held up a piece of paper, and Lincoln groaned at seeing what it was: for Lisa's birthday, he siblings had all given her the one thing she requested, which was a coupon from each of them promising one free experiment performed on them, tattle free. Of course, being such a rare opportunity, Lisa had been saving them up for only her best plans. Due to their generally dim nature, Lisa had used Leni and Luan's coupons almost immediately, since they could just be persuaded into another test. She still had the ones for the rest of the siblings, which worried most of them.

"Ok," Lincoln sighed, "What do you need me to do?"

Hearing the despondent tone in her brother's voice enraged Lynn, and she was getting ready to tackle Lisa for her sheer stupidity.

Before the athlete could tackle her, however, Lisa swiftly moved to the fridge, opening it and pulling out a paper cup. Upon looking inside of it, Lincoln saw what appeared to be chocolate milk. Knowing he couldn't get out of this (lest he wanted Lisa to spread around that he was not a man of his word), and knowing he didn't want to know what the liquid REALLY was, Lincoln closed his eyes and took a sip of the drink…

And almost dropped the cup in surprise as his tongue exploded in a sensation of flavor.

"What…what is this glorious concoction?" Lincoln said, looking at the cup in awe.

Hearing this stopped Lynn from entering the kitchen, instead trying to hear a little better. At that moment, she felt someone else come up behind her, and looked up to see Lori, holding Lily, also peering around the kitchen door.

"It's a special type of chocolate milk I've personally made," Lisa explained, "I went to the local Farmer's Marker over the weekend, where I picked up home grown cocoa beans, cinnamon roots, and jalapeño peppers; I also got to milk a cow. When I got home, I ground up both the cocoa beans and cinnamon into powdered form, getting a cup of each; pasteurized the milk, also giving me a cup; and squeezed the jalapeño until I got a cup of juice. I then took a spoonful of cinnamon and a spoonful of jalapeño juice and placed both into one of the cups we use to rinse our mouths after brushing our teeth. I then mixed them together thoroughly. I then used the squeezer from one of Mom's old jars of eye drops to drip exactly five drops of the cinnamon-jalapeño mix into a cup of milk. Next, I mixed half-a-cup of cocoa with one spoonful of room-temperature water. I then poured this into the milk, which I stirred for exactly 60 seconds, before placing in the refrigerator for 30 minutes exactly."

Lincoln looked at his genius sister in awe, before looking down at the cup in his hands. All that went into making this delicious chocolate milk. And he had almost turned it down! Without saying anything, Lincoln chugged the rest of the cup down, taking a moment to savor the flavor.

"This is, without a doubt, the most delicious chocolate milk I've ever had, Lisa," Lincoln said, crouching down to his sister's level, "You should definitely make more. Heck, you should market it as your own recipe."

"You really think so?" Lisa asked, looking at her brother in gratitude, before throwing her arms around him and squeezing tight, "Thank you, Lincoln. I'm sorry I had to use my coupon to force you to drink it. I just really wanted your opinion on this, seeing as it is my first real attempt at anything food related, and you are somewhat of a food connoisseur."

"Not sure if I'm a conis…connos…one of those fancy food guys, but I do know good food when I taste it," Lincoln said, lightly tussling Lisa's hair, "And hey, I'm sorry I was so eager to turn it down. Guess I was just a little nervous."

"No, no," Lisa sighed, pulling away from the hug, "It's my fault. If all of my experiments weren't reminiscent of a "mad scientist", then maybe you would all be more willing to try them out."

"Well, I guess the answer here is obvious," Lincoln said, smiling at his genius sister, who looked up at him in confusion, "Just tone down the scary stuff. Like, maybe for every 5 experiments you perform to better the world, do one to just make things a little better, like this chocolate milk. It's not gonna change anything really, but it sure is tasty."

"Hmm…" Lisa put her hand to her chin in thought "That is a GREAT idea, Lincoln!" She hugged him again, "As always, you have shown that you are a vital and important part of my experiments, as well as my life."

"Your life?" Lincoln asked, confused.

"Well, yes," Lisa said, beaming up at him (which he found quite surprising, seeing as her face was usually set in a stoic frown), "I may be smarter than all of my siblings combined, but I am still a little girl, and like all little girls, I look up to my big brother. I don't know what I would do without you. Promise me you'll always be here for me."

Lincoln was now beyond surprised at how Lisa was acting. While the Loud siblings all loved each other equally, each of them was obviously closer to some than others, such as Leni and Lori being BFFs, or Lynn and Lana's shared love of outdoors and roughhousing. Lincoln was no exception to this, being closer to a couple of his sisters, yet Lisa had never really been one of them.

"I promise, Lisa," Lincoln said after a minute, tightening his hug, "You know I'll always have your back, whether you need to test an experiment, or just need someone there for you."

"Like when you located Benny for me, right?" The toddler asked, and Lincoln chuckled. Out in the dining room, the rest of the sisters had gathered, and all of them looked at each other in confusion, with Lucy mouthing, _"Benny?"_

A couple months back, Lori had been doing the laundry one weekend, and had been going through a rough time with Bobby. As such, she was only half-focused on her task. When she entered Lisa and Lily's room, she gathered the laundry from the hamper, as well as anything lying about. Absent-mindedly, she grabbed what she thought was Lily's Blankie, ignoring the fact that it was on Lisa's bed, and the fact that it was blue instead of purple. Unknown to any of her siblings, the blanket Lori took was Lisa's blankie, Benny (named after Benjamin Franklin) that she slept with. Having such a high IQ and being well respected in the community, Lisa made sure no one knew that she was still dependent on a sleep aid; she had just happened to leave Benny out in plain sight when she got a call from her college, informing her that she may already be applicable for tenure.

When Lisa got back to her room, she was so excited about her call that she failed to notice Benny was not where she left him. She didn't notice until that night, when the house had gone to sleep. She waited until she could hear the telltale signs of snoring, before reaching under her mattress to retrieve Benny. Upon failing to find him, Lisa merely shrugged it off and tried to fall asleep. However, she soon realized she would be unable to. She quietly spent the next half hour searching through her room to try and find Benny, but was unable to. Finally giving up, Lisa sat on her bed and lightly cried, knowing she had a big day the next day, yet was unable to fall asleep. It was only due to the fact that Lincoln had not gone to the bathroom before going to bed, thus waking up after only an hour, that he heard his sister's cries. At first, he assumed it was Lily, but upon slowly opening the door, he was greeted by a sight he had never seen before. Ignoring the out-of-character behavior, Lincoln quickly rushed to his second-youngest sister's side and wrapped her in a hug, asking what was wrong.

Though embarrassed, Lisa came clean and asked if she could sleep with Lincoln, under the guise that maybe sleeping with someone would make for a good substitute. Lincoln almost said yes, but stopped, and told Lisa he'd be right back. He hurried out of her room and quietly sprinted down the stairs. Lisa was confused as to what exactly he was doing, yet stayed where she was. A minute later, she heard her brother come back up the stairs; he entered her room, and Lisa's eyes went wide with joy at seeing Benny in his hands. Lincoln explained Lori had asked for his help with the laundry and (though he wanted to tell her no due to all the times she refused to help him with his chore) he agreed. He had noticed the extra blanket, yet thought nothing of it; when Lisa described her missing blankie, Lincoln instantly knew he had seen Lori place it in the basement closet with all the extra blankets and sheets. Lisa gratefully thanked her brother with a big hug. She, of course, asked that he keep Benny a secret, to which he agreed.

"Yeah," Lincoln agreed, his mind coming back to the present, "You know it, sis."

At that, the two pulled away, and Lisa had a great big smile on her face as she walked away, glad that her plan to make Lincoln feel good AND remind him how important he was apparently worked.

"Oh, by the way, Lis?" Lincoln called after her, making the genius toddler stop in her tracks, "I appreciate any HELP you wanna give me, but please don't do my homework for me again. I don't wanna get in trouble with Mrs. Johnson. Or Mom and Dad."

Lisa let out a small sigh as she turned to face her brother, a look of remorse plastered on her face as she replied, "I do apologize, dear brother. I simply noticed you had left it out and that most of the answers you had placed were wrong. I did not want you to fail, so I got to work with the intention of helping you just get a "B", but then I got a little carried away. I promise it shall not happen again."

Lincoln smiled, accepting Lisa's apology, "It' ok, Lis. Actually, because of "my" perfect score, I get out of having to take a test over the material on Friday, so thanks."

Lisa merely nodded in response, and headed up to her room, passing the rest of her sisters as she did so. A couple of them gave her confused looks, yet the majority of them gave her a thumb's-up.

* * *

The rest of the night went the same as it normally did. Lincoln played with Lana and Lola, helped Lucy with her poetry (which she was a bit concerned about, seeing as he gave her some GREAT dark material), and rocked out with Luna. Lincoln noticed that anytime he was about to head into his room, one of the sisters stopped him, either needing his help with something or just wanting to hang out.

By the time dinner came around, Lincoln was surprised to find that the rest of his week was pretty full. He was helping Luan with a couple birthday parties after school on Tuesday and Thursday, would be attending one of Luna's concerts after dinner on Thursday, would be going to one of Lola's pageants after school on Wednesday, followed by an alligator wrestling match for Lana. Tonight after dinner he would be watching a basketball game with Lynn, and Tuesday night would be reserved for one of Lucy's poetry readings. He was actually wondering if he should LET Lisa do his homework, seeing as he wouldn't have much time to do it himself.

As for Friday, well…Lincoln had told the girls he had something personal planned for that night. He said he would "be busy all afternoon and most of the night" after school let out, and that they could have dinner without him. Of course, the girls tried to keep from freaking out when they heard that. Lori tried to get Lincoln to reconsider, saying they could do a family thing, catch a movie right after school and then go out to eat. Lincoln said it sounded like a lot of fun, yet stressed that he really couldn't make it. Before the girls could get him to change his mind, Mom and Dad called everyone to dinner.

Lincoln had to admit he was rather surprised at the kiddie table that night, as none of his little sisters horsed around or did anything even remotely rambunctious. Lisa helped feed Lily, and Lucy and the twins engaged Lincoln in a conversation about some upcoming movies and how summer break was right around the corner. It was the first night in a long time that Lincoln actually got to eat all of his food AND not have any food in his hair or clothes. He briefly wondered if the girls were feeling ok.

Meanwhile, in the dining room, the older sisters were talking amongst themselves, trying to figure out what to do about Friday, without alerting their parents to what was going on. Deep down, all of them knew they SHOULD tell their parents what they had found out about Lincoln, yet they were each worried that doing so would only make their brother angry and close himself off from them. And they knew that in order to help him, they needed him to be willing to open himself up. As such, while they WERE going behind his back at first, afterwards they needed his full cooperation. This of course meant that, unlike all the OTHER times they meddled in their brother's business, they needed to be fully accepting of his choices. So that meant if he told them to butt out, they needed to butt out. Of course, they likely wouldn't, given the circumstances. But if did have to go behind his back, they needed to be smart about it. Then there was the fact that if Lincoln knew that they knew about his depression issues, that could open up a whole new mess of problems.

"My head hurts," Leni moaned, rubbing her temples as she thought over everything Lori had told her before dinner.

"Need an aspirin, sweetie?" Mom asked, looking at her second-youngest in concern.

"She'll be fine," Lori said quickly, wrapping an arm around Leni's shoulders, "I'm just trying to help her solve a complicated problem, and it's making my head hurt a little, too."

"It's making ALL our heads hurt," Lynn moaned.

"What's the problem?" Dad asked, smirking, "I used to be quite the nerd back in middle school."

"It's a bit hard to explain," Luan sighed, "It involves a lot of back and forth stuff, tricks of the mind and things like that."

"Maybe Lisa could help," Mom suggested, "After all, she IS a college professor."

"She's tried," Luna spoke up, "But this is one problem that's got even her stumped."

Mom and Dad looked at each other, surprised. There was yet to be a problem Lisa couldn't solve.

"Well…" Dad spoke up after a minute, "What about Lincoln? He tends to think outside of the box more often than not. Maybe this is his type of problem."

The girls shared a look, their father unaware how right he was.

Lori sighed, "I'm pretty sure Linc isn't gonna be too much help on this one, either."

"Why not?"

All the older sisters jumped up in surprise as they turned and saw Lincoln standing at the doorway to the kitchen, holding his glass.

"Sorry," He said, "Was just about to get a refill when I heard you guys. Are you sure I can't help with this problem? What subject is it?"

"It's…a word problem for advanced trigonometry with a bit of calculous," Lori said nervously, hoping her brother and parents would buy it.

Thankfully, they did. "Yeesh," Lincoln grimaced, "I'm already nervous about PRE-algebra. I don't wanna get into all that calculous and trig stuff any time soon. Sorry, Leni."

"Well," Mom shrugged, as she resumed eating, "Just do the best you can, sweetie. That's what counts."

"Thanks, Mom," Leni nodded, before casting a glance at her brother's retreating form as he headed back into the kitchen, "I'll do the best I can, for sure."

Luna, seeing where Leni was looking, also nodded, "We all will."

* * *

That night, as everyone was getting ready to turn in, Lincoln sat on his bed, looking at the 10-dollar bill in his hand. He still couldn't believe how he had gotten it.

After dinner, Lynn and Lincoln had gone into the living room to watch the basketball game, featuring the Royal Woods Woodchucks vs. the Lansing Lions. To Lincoln's complete surprise, Lynn bet him 10 bucks the other teams would win. Lynn hardly EVER bet against her home town, even if she wasn't on the team. Lincoln asked if she was sure, pointing out that RW had been having a nearly perfect season, to which Lynn started flapping her arms and BAWK-BAWKing, calling him a chicken. Annoyed, Lincoln took the bet. And sure enough, he ended up winning. Afterwards, Lynn apologized for calling him a chicken and said she enjoyed watching the game with him, giving him a hug before heading up to bed.

Lincoln had to admit things felt a little…off with his sisters lately. He loved them and they loved him, yet they were hardly ever this…nice to him. And especially not all at once. Usually at least Lori or Lola would be in a bad mood and would take it out on him (whether he was at fault or not).

"Eh," Lincoln shrugged, putting the money in his wallet before changing into his pajamas, "Guess I'll just enjoy this while it lasts." He was more than certain whatever had gotten into his sisters would pass within a couple days, and it would be back to chaos as usual. So until then, he was gonna enjoy himself.

Shutting off his light and yelling the usual "GOODNIGHT" to his family, Lincoln laid down in bed and grabbed Bun-Bun. As he was getting comfortable, he heard a knock at his door. Groaning, he got up and opened it, revealing Lucy with her pet bat, Fangs.

"Hey, Luce, what's up?" Lincoln asked, looking at the bat warily. He had never liked Fangs. Or any of Lucy's bats, really.

"I was wondering if I could sleep with you tonight?" Lucy asked, "I had a bad dream last night and I'm worried it'll happen again. And I don't wanna bother Lynn cuz I feel she just won't understand."

"Sure," Lincoln shrugged, stepping aside and allowing his Gothic sister to enter. Fangs flew up and perched on top of Lincoln's dresser mirror, where he watched the two. Crawling into bed, Lincoln asked, "What was your bad dream about?"

Wrapping her arms around her brother's torso, Lucy sighed, "I met up with Rocky to see a movie, but he said he would only be friends with me if I was normal. Then, I suddenly turned pink, and he said that NOW I was perfect. I was then forced to watch several Barbie movies and sing songs from pop divas." At that, Lucy shuddered, "It was awful."

Wrapping an arm under his sister, Lincoln pulled her close, "Sorry to hear that, Luce. But hey, at least it was just a dream. It's not real, so it can't hurt you."

"Thanks, Lincoln," Lucy said, tightening her hug, "It makes me feel good to know I can always count on you to be there for me. Promise you'll never leave me."

At this, Lincoln raised an eyebrow in confusion. That was TWO SISTERS in one day who had asked that he never leave them. As previously stated, Lincoln wasn't AGAINST all this love and attention, but it was just that so much of it had come out of nowhere.

"I promise, Lucy," Lincoln finally said, closing his eyes as the two drifted off to sleep.

Due to the house's paper-thin walls, the entire rest of the family had heard the exchange between the two. In all the sisters' rooms, smirks and thumbs-ups were given, each of them glad Lucy had been able to make Lincoln feel good.

Downstairs, Mom and Dad smiled at each other as they lay down, Lynn wrapping his arms around Rita as they too drifted off. Because of all the usual chaos and drama in their household, both parents found it sweet when their kids so openly got along.

* * *

The next couple days were quite different for the Loud house. The sisters continued treating Lincoln like royalty, all the while making sure he was hardly ever alone.

At school, Lincoln went about his business as usual, save for one key difference. While he continued to hang out with Clyde, Ronnie Anne, Zach, and Liam, anytime he tried to talk to Rusty, either Lucy or one of the twins would appear out of nowhere and interrupt them, usually leading Lincoln away from his bike-loving friend.

After school was, as previously stated, busy both days. A party with Luan, dinner, then one of Lucy's poetry readings. While there, he chatted with Haiku, who stated she had forgiven Lincoln for the Sadie Hawken's Dance debacle, and that she was happy to have made a new friend in Clyde from it. Hearing this made Lincoln feel good. While Clyde and Haiku weren't necessarily "dating", it was good that his friend was slowly starting to move on from Lori.

At the poetry reading, Lucy read a poem about depression, all the while staring at Lincoln.

" _Depression, some use it as an escape from life, an easy way to accept yourself.  
Yet really, it is a trap. A trap that can confine the strongest of the strong  
Without them even realizing it.  
It will eat your soul, forcing you down a dark path._

 _How does one beat depression?  
Know that there is a light all around you,  
A light called family, friends, and loved ones.  
Perhaps, really, the only light worth basking in its glow."_

The crowd was surprised at the rather unusual poem from the Loud girl, as she usually embraced the darkness and condemned the light. Nonetheless, a few people clapped at her poem, including Lincoln and Haiku.

On the way home, Lucy asked Lincoln if he felt anything from her poem, secretly trying to get him to confess to his depression and let her and their sisters help him. Instead, he merely replied that it had a dark yet upbeat feeling to it.

On Wednesday, as soon as school let out, Lincoln and the twins went to the Little Miss Future Miss Universe Pageant. Of course, Lola ended up winning. During her speech, she said that above all else, she wanted to thank her amazing pageant coach, Lincoln, for always believing in her and helping her train. Lincoln blushed at this as some of the families of the other contestants looked his way and smiled in approval, a couple grandmothers pinching his cheeks and calling him a good big brother.

The three then stopped at Gus' Games and Grub for dinner, where Lola used some of her pageant winnings to treat Lincoln to a large pepperoni pizza, dies soda, and order of garlic knots. By the time he was finished, Lincoln felt like he was gonna burst.

Then came Lana's alligator wrestling match. Lincoln was, of course, beyond worried about his 6-year-old sister wrestling a live gator, but the guy running the event assured him the gators were docile AND had been lightly drugged, as such would not be a full threat.

Lana ended up coming in second place, which she happily accepted. After the match, she came up to Lincoln and told him one of the gator's smaller teeth had scratched her arm, and asked if he could kiss it to make it better. Lincoln did so, not seeing Lola give her sister a thumbs-up.

Both nights, after getting home, Lincoln headed to his room, stating he had something very important to do before going to bed. A couple of the sisters tried to get him to hang out, yet Lincoln pointed out that by them taking up his afternoon and evening, the last hour before bedtime needed to be spent on his homework. Despite agreeing to this, every five minutes, one of the sisters would knock on Lincoln's door and ask him a question. It annoyed Lincoln greatly, yet he was happy to help his sisters.

While each of the sisters merely noticed Lincoln was in fact working on homework, one time when Leni knocked on his door, she noticed him quickly hide what he was looking at. The ditzy blonde thought nothing of it as she asked him what the capital of Ohio was.

After Leni almost saw what he was looking at, Lincoln was much more careful when looking at that particular piece of schoolwork. He didn't need his sisters to see this, at least not yet. Honestly, he wasn't too thrilled about what was gonna happen this Friday, but he knew he needed to do it. However, he was sure that if his sisters found out, they would only throw a wrench in his plans with their usual antics. He was taking extra measures to make sure they would not find out about what was going to happen until it would be too late to do anything about it.

"Life," Lincoln muttered in annoyance as he got out his laptop and opened up his History assignment, "Why's it gotta be so messed-up?"

Unknown to Lincoln, Lucy was hiding in the vents, having been instructed by the sisters to keep watch over Lincoln in case he did anything strange. While she had not seen him hide what he had been looking at when Leni checked up on him, she had heard his little grumble just now. She lightly gasped, wondering if anything any of them were doing was even making a difference for their brother. As she contemplated this, she realized there was only one thing she could do to make sure he would feel amazing.

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, the sisters were a little on edge. After all, tomorrow was supposedly when something BIG was gonna happen with Lincoln. Based on his anger towards Chandler, a couple of the sisters had an idea as to what their brother was planning, and they didn't like it.

As the family was sitting around, enjoying breakfast before school and work, Lucy sighed, before standing up on her chair, "May I have everyone's attention, please?"

Everyone turned towards the Goth, wondering what was on her mind. Sighing, Lucy knew there was no backing out now, "I have something important to tell you all. This is a secret that I've been keeping for the last few months, and I still feel horrible that someone close to me suffered because of my mistake."

"Sweetie, is everything ok? Did someone get hurt?" Rita asked nervously. The one thing she feared more than anything was the idea that one of her children would accidentally do something illegal (and worse, try to cover it up).

"No one was hurt physically, yet because of my actions and my sisters' actions, our dear brother was hurt emotionally," Lucy said, turning to look at her sisters before turning to stare at her brother, who was seated across from her. The rest of the sisters were looking at each other in worry, wondering what exactly Lucy was talking about. At this point, they did NOT need Lincoln to remember one of the many MANY times they had ganged up on him over something. Lucy then sighed, before pulling something out of her backpack, which was behind her chair.

Everyone's eyes went wide when they saw what it was: the newest issue of Princess Pony.

"I fully embrace the darkness, my being Goth is not a "phase" I shall grow out of, it will always be a part of me," Lucy sighed, "But even so, every once in a while, I need a break from the darkness. As such, I have taken to reading Princess Pony every now and again. However, as I share a room with Lynn, I sometimes either read in the vents…or the bathroom."

A collective gasp rang out around the table as everyone (save for Lincoln, who already knew) put two and two together.

"That night, I was reading it on the toilet (by which I mean sitting on the lid, using the toilet as a seat), when I heard someone coming. I ducked into the bathtub and hid, inadvertently dropping the book into the toilet. I peeked over and saw Lincoln pulling down his pants, still half-asleep. I ducked down to give him privacy, before I realized I didn't have the book. Lincoln finished his business, and I got out to grab my book and get out of there. When I couldn't find it, it was easy enough to figure out what had happened. I opened the lid, but Lincoln had flushed it." At this, the Goth stopped and turned to her brother, "And Lincoln, may I do a quick sidebar and say we, your 10 SISTERS, are beyond grateful that you, our ONLY BROTHER, always flush the toilet after you use it, and that you use the can of air freshener to make sure the bathroom doesn't stink afterwards." The Goth then turned to the rest of her family, "Anyway, despite Lincoln being the one to flush the toilet, I was the one who dropped my book in it, and I spent the day trying to trick Lincoln into framing one of you for my crime. And after he found out, he took the blame to spare me the humiliation, resulting in not only missing his comic convention due to being grounded, but also having to go through the next couple days with all of you mad at him. As such, I owe all of you, but especially Lincoln, a huge apology. I know I can't make up for the fact that Lincoln had to miss the convention, but I do wish to make it up to all of you for lying to you. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me."

The family was silent as they stared at Lucy, and then at Lincoln, and then back at Lucy.

Finally, after a good minute of awkward silence, Dad spoke up, "Well, kiddo, I'll admit I'm disappointed you lied and let your brother take the blame for you, yet I can appreciate you coming clean. However, I feel it would be a bit redundant to punish you a good few months later, so-"

"No!" Lucy snapped, startling her father, "You punished Lincoln without a second thought. You can NOT favor us girls over your son. ESPECIALLY not after the bad luck fiasco!"

The whole family grimaced at that memory. It had been about a month, and yet the family was still walking on eggshells after that. Mom and Dad had almost considered the possibility that they were unfit parents and should maybe see a councilor about their family issues, yet had decided against that after Lincoln assured them he forgave them, pointing out he was as much at fault as they were. Since then, the family agreed not to mention it.

"Very well," Lynn Sr. sighed, looking at his wife, before turning back to his Gothic daughter, "Lucy, I grounded Lincoln for a week for clogging the toilet and lying about it. As such, you are hereby grounded for TWO weeks." Lucy nodded in understanding and sat back down. However, as the girls all got ready to apologize to Lincoln, Lynn spoke up again, "As for the rest of you, I am well aware that teasing people, even those closest to you, is human nature. I can't stop that. However, I remember a few particular insults thrown at your brother for his (supposed) choice in literature. As such, any teasing of Lucy for reading that comic is off limits. After all, we all know she's not the only one of you who has an embarrassing secret." He narrowed his eyes at his daughters, "Do I make myself clear?"

Some of them, knowing that at least one parent knew at least one of their embarrassing secrets, gulped in fear, as they all nodded, with Lola even mentioning she had read a couple of Lucy's poems out of curiosity, proving that some of them preferred to step outside of their comfort zone every once in a while. A couple of the others mentioned similar things they liked to do that many would not expect, though none of them were particularly embarrassing.

Lincoln smiled at this. While he had not at all expected Lucy to admit to the Princess Pony book, it was nice that her doing so seemed to help the family open up a little more. Like his parents, it made him feel good any time his family got along so well.

Lori noticed Lincoln smiling while looking at them all, and flashed a quick grin towards Lucy, glad her plan seemed to have worked. As for what was revealed, Lori had always had a feeling that the book wasn't Lincoln's and he was covering for someone, yet it hadn't been any of her business, so she stayed out of it. The fact that it was Lucy's book was quite surprising, yet Lori really didn't care, seeing as her mind was on her brother at the moment. In fact, as she looked at her brother, something else came to mind.

"Lincoln," Lori spoke up, gaining her brother's, as well as the table's, attention, "I wanted to officially apologize for that day I broke you video game goggles. I was being careless, and then I acted nonchalant about it. That was wrong, and you had every reason to get mad at me." After that incident, Lori had confronted Lincoln in private about his letter about the worst sister ever. She wanted to let him have it, yet she stopped at the last second and simply told him that they would stay out of each other's way from now on, no longer being siblings. Of course, Lincoln wouldn't have that, and did her chores for a month to apologize. Then came the Ronnie Anne incident, which jeopardized her relationship with Bobby. Once Lincoln fixed all that, she forgave him, stating he was the best brother ever. But of course Lincoln had to be sure, so he later helped her get her job at Gus' Games and Grub. After that, the two had officially made up.

But still, thinking to what Lucy had just done, it made her realize even if she forgave him for the letter and he forgave her for the goggles…she hadn't forgiven herself. What had she said that day? She could mostly remember it. _"I accidentally broke your stupid toy so I bought you a stupid new one."_ What the heck kind of apology was that?!

"Lori, it's in the past," Lincoln said, smiling at his oldest sister, "What's done is done. What matters is that we learn from our mistakes and move on."

"THAT!" Lynn shouted, startling everyone at the table. They all looked at her and saw that her eyes were watering up, "THAT is what we can't do, what we're not able to do." Lynn then jumped across the table and wrapped her brother in a surprise hug as tears stared rolling down her eyes, "We're not able to let things go so easily. We screw up in some monumental way and barely acknowledge it, and you forgive us instantly. You mess up in some minor way and own up to it immediately, yet we give you nothing but grief for it, even long after it's done. Why, Linc? Why are you such a good brother to us rotten sisters?"

At that, the rest of the sisters, all of whom had guilty looks on their faces, crowded around their brother, wrapping him in a group hug.

"Guys…" Lincoln spoke up, patting as many backs as he could while trying to console his upset sisters. He looked at his parents for help, yet they were just staring at their children with confusion. They, of course, knew that their kids screwed up and got mad at each other from time to time, and they were both willing to admit they noticed their only son take the brunt of the anger. But they didn't think it was this bad.

"Girls," Rita spoke up, getting her daughters' attention, "After the, uh, bad luck incident, your father and I were wondering if we should maybe see a therapist to go over our family's…dysfunctions. We ultimately decided against it, but if you kids think there are some things that need to be said that would be a bit too hard to say, we can look into it again."

The girls all looked at each other, and then at their brother, before turning to their parents. It was Lori who spoke up, "Thanks, Mom, but I think we'll be fine. It's just, maybe from now on, we all need to be a little more open with each other, not bottle up all of our feelings. And for ALL of us, not just Lincoln, when we screw up, we need to be more willing to own up to our mistakes, as well as the rest of us being more forgiving to each other. Sound good?" All the sisters nodded, finally letting go of their brother.

"Well," Lori sighed, looking at the clock, "It's about time to head to school. Anyone else got anything they wanna get off their chest before we go?"

No one said anything, so they all got up to put their dishes away.

"I do!" Leni spoke up, looking horribly guilty. The sisters all paused as she looked at Lincoln, "Lincoln, I…I…ya see…"

"Leni," Lincoln smiled gently, "Whatever it is, you can tell me, and I promise I won't be mad."

"You promise?" Leni asked, looking a little afraid.

"Yes," Lincoln nodded.

"Well…" Leni rubbed her hands nervously.

"Leni, will you please just say whatever it is so you and Linc can hug it out?" Lori asked impatiently, "We gotta leave soon or we're gonna be late." The others nodded as well, looking at their dimwitted sister in a mix of nervousness and annoyance.

Finally cracking under the harsh stares, Leni cried out, "Last night I accidentally knocked your toothbrush in the toilet and then I put it back on the counter without washing it!"

The sisters' eyes went wide as they all turned to their brother, whose eye was twitching as he started lightly gagging.

"Uh…guh…uh…" After a few seconds of gagging, Lincoln started crying out in disgust as he started wiping his tongue furiously while running from the room. He ran up the stairs and everyone heard the bathroom door slam shut.

"Probably gonna chug the whole bottle of mouthwash down," Rita sighed, looking at her second oldest in slight disappointment, "Leni, why didn't you wash his toothbrush after you retrieved it from the toilet?"

"I was going to," Leni sighed, "But then Lincoln knocked on the door and I panicked, so when I opened it I just laid his toothbrush on the counter and hurried out."

"Ok," Lynn Sr. sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "As a minor punishment, you have to buy your brother a new toothbrush, and the next few bottles of mouth wash we buy will come out of your allowance."

"Ok, Dad," Leni nodded, nervously getting up and carrying her dishes into the kitchen, avoiding the glares from her sisters. Leni may have been dim, but even she was smart enough to realize she had just screwed up BIG TIME, her one confession most likely undoing nearly 10 minutes of progress the girls had made on their brother.

"Girls," Rita said, watching her 9 daughters (even Lily) glare at Leni's retreating form, "What did you all JUST agree on? Leni screwed up, and she's gonna make amends. Besides, how many of you does this really affect? Just Lincoln. So please, calm down. Especially you, Lori; you don't need to be driving while mad."

The sisters each took a deep breath as they calmed down, with Lori instructing them to head to the car. Leni followed suit, still looking nervous. Lincoln came down a couple minutes later, and true to his mother's prediction, he was holding the now empty bottle of mouthwash, which he tossed in the trash.

Lincoln bid his parents goodbye before hurrying out to Vanzilla, where he (for the fourth day in a row) hopped into the Sweet Spot. Everyone was quiet as Lori drove to school. Lincoln stared out the window the entire ride, not saying anything. Leni kept turning around in her seat and opening her mouth, wanting to say something, yet she always turned away, unsure of what to say. She knew she had made a bone-headed move, and was unsure of how to apologize.

Finally, they pulled up to RWES, and Lincoln, Lucy, and the twins got out. As soon as Lincoln was out and the door was shut, Lori turned to Leni, a ferocious glare on her face, "WHAT THE HELL, LENI!?"

"I'm sorry!" Leni cried, looking down at her lap, "I just felt guilty that I let him use his toothbrush after I knocked it in the toilet, and when Lucy admitted the truth about the Princess Pony book, my guilt just grew."

"Well, you probably ruined all our hard work!" Luan snapped. Leni was surprised, because other than April Fool's Day, Luan was one of the calmest sisters in the house, hardly ever getting mad or raising her voice.

"Yeah, Dude!" Luna glared at Leni, "We're all trying to make amends for our past screw-ups, and here you go saying you messed up just last night?!"

"And in such a gross way?" Lynn cried, "If I had done that, I would have tossed it and offered him MY toothbrush."

"I'm sorry, guys," Leni said, looking forlorn, "I'll be more careful next time."

"You better be," Lori sighed as she pulled up to RWMS, "We can't afford anymore screw ups at the moment. Especially since tomorrow is supposed to be something big." The girls all shared a look as Lynn and Luan got out, bidding their older sisters goodbye. Lori then drove down the block to RWHS, where the three oldest sisters exited and made their way inside.

"You don't really think Linky would forget all the good stuff we've been doing for him this week just because of my little screw up, right?" Leni nervously asked.

"We can only hope the little dude won't," Luna sighed, as the three went their separate ways to the freshman, sophomore, and junior hallways, respectively.

"We can only hope so," Lori sighed, as she headed to her locker.

* * *

 **So, the sisters have been making good on their promise to be better sisters to their brother, but they have no way of knowing whether or not their tactics are truly working. They'll just have to wait and see.**

 **For Lucy and the Princess Pony book, I felt it would be a good thing for her to admit, seeing as things are getting critical and time is of the essence. Same for Lori and the game goggles/voice message. Also, I figured this should be AFTER the luck incident, seeing as that would obviously cause a LOT of family drama which would need to be addressed.**

 **And this time, I'll remember to give credit where credit is due: Leni's confession about Lincoln's toothbrush is taken from the** _ **SpongeBob SquarePants**_ **episode "The Pink Purloiner", where Patrick admits to having done the same thing to SpongeBob. I added that scene because a friend suggested I add a tiny bit of humor to make the story a little easier to read.**


	3. Chapter 3

**So, quite the…interesting reception to the last chapter. Let me address that.**

 **I am well aware that everyone and their brother has done something with Lucy and the Princess Pony book. This was merely MY take on it. Despite the fact that it's been a few months, Lucy is currently at a point where she is fearing for her brother's mental health. As such, she thought that revealing the secret would help her brother see just how much she loves him.**

 **And for Lori, even though it was just the second episode (third if you count the pilot short), I thought that her actions in that episode were just as bad as Lincoln's. Yes, she did go out and replace the game goggles after she accidentally broke them, but her attitude throughout the whole episode was just sh*tty. If I broke my little cousin's (don't have any siblings) toy, I would first acknowledge it, then properly apologize, followed by telling them I would GLADLY replace it.**

 **Plus, both of these revelations helped the family acknowledge some issues with themselves. And come on, you all KNOW the Loud family could rival the Simpsons AND Griffins in several forms of dysfunction, so I'm sure the parents have at least considered therapy at some point.**

 **Anyway, now that that's out of the way, enjoy chapter 3.**

 **Also, this takes place BEFORE my Burning Secret fanfic, so that's why Lincoln is still at the kiddie table.  
**

* * *

As Lincoln walked towards the Fifth-Grade classroom, Lucy and the twins looked at each other nervously. Obviously they knew what Leni had revealed had greatly disgusted their brother (it even disgusted Lana, and that was saying something), and they knew it was up to them to do damage control.

As they were silently debating what to say, they saw Rusty appear at the end of the hall, heading towards them. Their eyes went wide, knowing Rusty was the LAST person Lincoln needed to talk to at the moment.

"I, uh…gotta go ask Rusty what I should get Rocky for his birthday!" Lucy spoke up, startling her siblings, despite the fact that they were well-aware that she was there. Before Lincoln could say anything, his Gothic sister was already hurrying toward his friend.

"Huh, didn't know Rocky's birthday was coming up," Lincoln muttered, "Good to see Lucy's thinking ahead."

"Yeah totally," Lana said, nodding her head, looking at Lola for a moment before turning back to her brother, "So, Linc, ya want some gum? I got a couple pieces of X-tra Minty Gum, and I figure you may want more after…this morning."

Lincoln sighed, "Honestly, I just wanna forget that ever happened. Totally disgusting. Not trying to be a jerk but, JEEZ! I knew Leni wasn't that bright, but just…UGH!"

"Yeah, she totally screwed up," Lola nodded, "But hey, that shouldn't undo that wonderful family moment we had, right?"

"No," Lincoln shook his head in agreement, "I'm not gonna let one little incident overshadow that sweet moment. Kinda surprised you've all been feeling that way. I mean, I know we aren't perfect, but I always thought we all knew we love each other, even when we screw up."

"Well, nothing wrong with reinforcing that idea, right?" Lana asked, "After all, you can never tell someone "I love you" enough."

"Fair point," Lincoln nodded, "But still, surprised Mom and Dad have been considering therapy for us. Didn't think we were THAT bad."

"Ya never know," Lola shrugged, sighing in relief as she watched Lucy lead Rusty away, "After all, other than his obsessive crush on Lori, Clyde's a pretty ok guy, yet he frequently sees a therapist."

"True," Lincoln nodded, as they finally arrived at the First-Grade room, "Well, I gotta get going. See you guys later." At that, Lincoln turned to leave, only to stop as he felt both twins grab him in a hug.

"We love you, Linky," They both said, smiling up at him.

Chuckling, Lincoln returned the hug, "I love you guys, too."

At that, the trio parted ways, the twins heading into their classroom and Lincoln making his way to his locker.

As they sat at their two-person desk, Lola looked at Lana, "Do you think he's still upset?"

"Didn't look like it," Lana replied, "But then again, we didn't know that he's been dealing with depression all this time, so no way to know for sure."

The two frowned at that, sitting silently until class began.

* * *

After leaving the twins, Lincoln stopped at his locker and gathered his supplies for the day. He then headed towards Mrs. Johnson's classroom, ready to begin yet another day.

As Lincoln walked, he couldn't help but think back to this morning. In all honesty, he had gotten over the Princess Pony incident long ago. Yeah, his sisters had teased him, and (as Dad had mentioned) a couple of the taunts were a bit inappropriate. But still, he had been happy to help Lucy. Was he mad at her for lying to him and trying to trick him at the time? Of course. But even so, he had taken the blame for her, because he loved her.

As for Lori, he was more than happy to put that whole phone message incident behind him. After the two had made up, Lori had mentioned maybe talk to some of his sisters about his anger towards them, rather than bottle it up in that note like he had. He had talked to a couple of them, such as asking Lynn to stop being so rough and asking Luan to stop making puns every 5 minutes. But really, all it had done was work for HIM; he had gotten his frustrations out, even if his sisters ignored him.

Then came the last topic brought up. Lincoln was well aware that the sisters tended to stick together most of the time, even on the rare occasion where one or more of them was in the wrong. And yeah, it did feel as though when it came to apologizing for mistakes, he had to move mountains while his sisters could simply say the word "sorry" and all was good. It annoyed him and felt very unfair, but what could he really do? Other than calling them out on it (which would likely do no good), there was really no way to handle it.

Or so he thought. Apparently the girls had been aware of this for some time, and were each just waiting for someone else to bring it up. Lincoln was sure when Lucy admitted the truth about the Princess Pony book, she had no idea the flow of emotions she was going to bring upon them. But hey, no reason to complain, right?

Or was there? As Lincoln took his seat and looked at the clock (5 minutes before class started) he couldn't help but wonder where all of this was coming from. Sure, his parents thinking about family therapy since the whole "luck" incident made sense, as that had been a dark time for the family. But as for the girls, all this love and regret seemed to come out of almost nowhere.

"When did it start?" Lincoln mumbled to himself, as Clyde and Ronnie Anne walked in and took their seats on either side of him. They tried to start a conversation with him, yet the white-haired boy was too absorbed in his thoughts to pay them any attention.

Friday had been a usual Friday for the family, with them all rejoicing when they got home, happy the weekend was here. Lori and Leni had gone out to dinner and a movie with Bobby and Sammy and didn't get back till later. Luna and Luan hung out in their room, listening to music and watching funny videos. Lynn and Lana rough-housed in the backyard. Lucy disappeared into the vents, Lisa experimented in her lab, Lola held a tea party for her dolls, and Lily just toddled around, being her usual adorable self. Saturday was also a usual Saturday at the house, nothing really happening other than the kids destroying the upstairs and being ordered to clean up before they went to bed.

Then Sunday…Sunday was the day he noticed his sisters acting weird. For most of the day it was a usual weekend for them, but then he went to Clyde's.

Turning towards his best friend, Lincoln asked, "Hey, Clyde? Do you remember anything unusual happening Sunday when we watched the new _AARGH!_?"

"Not really," Clyde responded, "I mean, I know you couldn't talk about it afterwards because you needed to help Lola and Lana with their homework. But other than that, nothing out of the ordinary happened."

"What's got ya bugged, Lameo?" Ronnie Anne asked, looking towards her not-so-secret crush in concern.

Sighing, Lincoln explained how his sisters had started treating him like royalty out of nowhere, and it slightly unnerved him.

"Shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, Loud," Ronnie Anne said, shrugging, "From what you've told me, my messing with you was nothing compared to the crap your sisters put you through on a near daily basis. If they realize they haven't been the best of sisters to you, I say take advantage of it."

"That seems wrong," Lincoln commented.

"I don't think Ronnie Anne means take advantage of your sisters' kindness," Clyde spoke up, "I think she means enjoy it to the fullest without being paranoid about some ulterior motives."

"What nerdy boy said," Ronnie Anne nodded, "Enjoy it before your sisters remember that they outnumber you 10 to 1. Besides, you gotta keep your head in the game for tomorrow."

"Right," Lincoln nodded, "Tomorrow's the big day." Even with his friends' encouragement, Lincoln couldn't help but feel overwhelmed about tomorrow. But it had to be done, he NEEDED this.

At that moment, the bell rang and Mrs. Johnson got everyone's attention, saying it was time to start class.

* * *

When Lori and the older sisters got home, they immediately set about making sure Lincoln's night would be perfect. He would be helping Luan at a party, then dinner, followed by one of Luna's concerts. Of course, they would have Lisa do his homework for him (despite his requests that she not) so that when he got home later, he could just relax. The sisters would offer to hang with him, and then Lana and Lola would tell him they wanted to sleep with him at night so he wouldn't be alone and would be reminded of how much his sisters cared for him.

At that moment, Luan got a text, _"Running L8, could u grb my stff, & I'll meet u the prty."_

"Text him back whatever he needs," Lori spoke up, and Luan nodded, typing the reply, before running up to her room. She ran down the stairs a minute later with her stuff in a duffle back, she and her sisters nodding at each other as she headed out.

"I hope this all goes ok," Luna muttered, as she headed upstairs to get a last-minute practice session in while Lori got started on dinner.

* * *

During the party, Luan made absolutely sure that the audience was always clapping for Lincoln, giving him the spotlight for the afternoon. Lincoln loved it, and on the way home he thanked Luan for such a fun time. The two hugged as Luan said she was happy to give him the spotlight because he was such a great assistant.

Upon getting home, Lincoln was greeted to spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, one of his favorites. At dinner, the siblings chatted, with a couple of the older girls popping in to make sure everything was going ok.

After dinner was Luna's concert, with Lincoln as a VIP. Technically, Luna was the opening act for another up-and-coming band, though Lincoln still had a great time rocking out with his sis. On the way out, Luna managed to snag Lincoln a souvenir leather jacket. Of course, it was imitation leather, would probably barely last a year, but it was still cool.

Chunk gave the two a lift home, during which they rocked out as hard as possible to the radio.

Upon arriving home, the older sisters (younger ones were already asleep) asked how the concert was and if Lincoln had had a good time. He stated he had, and the girls secretly flashed Luna a thumb's-up.

As the house quieted down for the night, the sisters sighed in content, certain they had avoided a catastrophe. Even though Lincoln had gotten home too late for the twins to ask to sleep with him, everyone was sure it was no longer needed.

* * *

The next morning, the girls got up at their usual time and got ready for school. As they were eating breakfast, they were discussing how they needed to make sure that Lincoln knew they loved him, meaning they needed to change so this didn't happen again. They all agreed to keep the promise they had made to be better with apologizing and owning up to their mistakes, as well as treating Lincoln as their brother rather than "the only boy (not counting Dad) in the house". They also figured one of the younger sisters could ask to sleep with him at least once a week, so he would know he was needed.

As they were eating, they slowly started to notice that Lincoln himself had yet to come downstairs. Lucy went up to get him, while the rest of the sisters discussed what to do this weekend. Since Lincoln would no longer be occupied by…what he had been planning on doing, they figured they could bring up the dinner and movie idea for after school again.

"Guys!" The sisters all jumped as Lucy appeared at the dining room entry-way looking worried, "Lincoln's not here!"

"What?" Lori cried, "How can he not be here? Did you check the bathroom?"

Lucy nodded, "His room, bathroom, all our rooms, even the attic. He's gone!"

The sisters looked at each other in alarm, trying not to panic. Leni spoke up, "Maybe he's just taking his secret things to school without us noticing."

The girls all looked at Leni in shock, "Secret things? What secret things?" Lori cried.

"Don't know," Leni shrugged, "I just saw him sneak something into his room on Monday, then the other night he tried to hide the paper he was looking at when I interrupted his homework to talk to him."

Most of the sisters looked ready to strangle Leni after she said this. "And," Luna's eye twitched in annoyance, "It didn't occur to you to TELL US ABOUT THAT!?"

"Not really," Leni shook her head, still seemingly oblivious to the fact that she screwed up, "We needed to focus on Linky's depression, so I figured it wasn't important."

"Leni, you're an idiot!" Luan cried in frustration, before turning to her Gothic sister, "Lucy, call Rocky and ask to speak to Rusty, now!"

Lucy nodded again as she pulled out her phone and called her friend/crush, "Rocky, I need to speak to Rusty, it's urgent!" The sisters looked at Lucy as she waited, "Rusty, listen, I don't have time to explain, just tell me, I your dad's gun still in your family's safe? I said I don't have time to explain, just check!" There was a long pause as Lucy waited for Rusty to check, "It's not?! Are you sure!? Ok, bye!" Lucy hung up and looked at her sisters with dread, "Rusty assured me the gun was not where it usually is, and neither he nor Rocky had taken it."

"Lincoln's had the gun all week," Luna muttered, "How did we not know?"

"What about the paper he hid from me?" Leni asked, scratching her head.

"It must have been Chandler's class schedule or maybe a suicide note," Lynn said, trying not to freak out, "Now he's gonna shoot Chandler and then kill himself!"

"WHAT?!"

The girls turned towards the dining room door, where their parents were standing in shock at what they had just heard.

Trying not to panic, each of the girls started talking at once about how they had found out about Lincoln's depression by listening to his audio diary, and how they discovered his animosity towards Chandler. Add the fact that he had "big plans" this Friday, it was easy to put together what exactly their brother had planned. Needless to say, Mom and Dad had their phones out before their daughters were done talking.

"Yes, police?!" Rita cried into the phone as her husband held her tightly. Neither could have imagined their only son would do something so drastic.

By this point, the sisters were running out the front door. They hopped into Vanzilla and Lori stepped on the gas, zooming out of the driveway and towards RWES. As they drove, ignoring all stoplights (nearly causing several accidents in the process), each sister prayed they were not too late to save their brother from whatever messed-up thing he had planned.

* * *

 **Well, looks like things are really heating up. Will the sisters be able to save their brother from himself? You'll have to wait till next time to see.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok, gotta do something unusual first: address an author's note.**

 **The Loud family love each other dearly, that's obvious. But they are dysfunctional. Not as bad as the Griffins at their WORST, but still. Don't wanna do this, but look at Brawl in the Family, No Such Luck, Chore and Peace, and episodes like that. Yes, Lynn Sr. and Rita lean more positively on the cartoon parents scale, but they are by no means great parents. If nothing else, I would give them a "B" for trying.**

 **Anyway, with that out of the way, enjoy the conclusion to this story.  
**

* * *

Lincoln sighed. It was the big day. He entered school nervously; he had actually woken up an hour earlier specifically so he could get to school and have plenty of time to do what he needed to do. He was trying not to be so nervous, but he was. What happened today would most likely have lasting consequences.

"Most likely, yeah right," Lincoln muttered to himself; he KNEW there would be consequences to today's actions. He could only hope they would be GOOD consequences.

He entered the front doors and looked around; obviously there weren't too many people here, seeing as school didn't actually start for another half hour. Most of the kids would be showing up in the next 10-15 minutes. But all that mattered was that Chandler was here.

And sure enough, Lincoln saw him with some of his friends at the end of the hallway. Taking a deep breath, Lincoln headed into the bathroom to get ready for this. It wouldn't be easy, but he had to do it.

* * *

The Loud siblings, even little Lily, were terrified as they zoomed through the streets towards Royal Woods Elementary. They had run several red lights, and even had a cop car after them. However, the cop did not yell at them to pull over; Lori figured their parents had already called the police, and they were following the girls to the school.

Finally, RWE appeared at the end of the block. From where they were, the girls could see that the majority of the students were already pouring in. At that moment, the girls saw a couple other cop cars, as well as a news van, pull up in front of the school, the officers getting out and waving kids and parents to stop them from entering the building.

The sisters gulped nervously as they skidded to a stop before jumping out of the car.

"This was a bad idea, dudes," Luna said, as the girls ran towards the back of the school, "If those cops see Linc as a threat, they'll make sure he can't harm anyone!"

"You mean they'll taser him, right?" Lana asked, though even she knew the truth.

Right as they rounded the corner, the girls saw a couple officers in swat gear kick open the front door. They had to hurry.

* * *

After splashing some water on his face, Lincoln exited the bathroom and headed towards Chandler with a determined look on his face.

* * *

At the other end of the school, the sisters crashed through the back doors, entering the gym. As they ran for the front, Lynn saw a baseball bat leaning out of the sports equipment closet. Between a baseball bat and…what the cops would do, Lynn knew this was the better choice. She grabbed it as the girls continued running through the halls.

* * *

Kids and teachers gasped and braced their backs against the walls as armed officers ran through the front hall towards Lincoln, who remained oblivious.

Lincoln marched right up to Chandler and stated, "Chandler, I'm tired of all this, so here!"

At that, Lincoln stuck his hand into his jacket pocket, and time seemed to freeze. The students near them who saw the police looked at the Loud boy with looks of horror; many of them were his friends (or at least acquaintances) so they were even more shocked.

The head officer, standing only a few feet away from Lincoln, saw what he was doing and pulled out his gun.

At that moment, the sisters came running down the side hall. Their eyes went wide as they watched Lincoln stick his hand in his pocket, as well as the head officer reach for his gun. With a burst of adrenaline, Lynn high-tailed it down the hall, bat at the ready.

As Lincoln went to pull his hand out of his pocket, he heard, "DROP IT, KID!" Stunned, Lincoln turned around to see half-a-dozen police officers approaching him. Before he could react, he felt something SLAM into his knee.

Everyone's eyes went wide as they saw Lynn had hit Lincoln in the knee with her bat. Lincoln yelled out in pain and threw his arm out of his pocket in shock as he fell to the ground. Everyone watched as a small, black object flew through the air before landing at the head officer's feet and breaking.

Not a gun. A flash drive.

No one said anything for a good few moments, during which Lincoln clutched his knee on the ground in pain. Finally, the head officer turned to Lori and said, "Miss Loud, you owe everyone an explanation."

"I…" Lori had no idea what to say. Thinking quickly, Lynn dug through Lincoln's jacket pockets before turning to the police and shaking her head.

At that moment, a news lady and her camera man arrived, "And we're here live on the scene where one of the Loud siblings-yes, one of THAT family-has apparently been prevented from taking part in a school shooting."

"WHAT?!" Lincoln cried out in shock, looking up at everyone in confusion.

Nervously, Lori spoke up, looking at Lincoln yet glancing to the camera, "Linc, we…we found your audio diary about how you're suicidal, and then Lana overheard you talking about how you're tired of Chandler and don't wanna have to deal with him anymore."

Needless to say, many people, police, students, and teachers all looked at Lincoln in shock.

"Linc, what's going on?" Clyde and Ronnie Anne shoved themselves to the front of the crowd, looking at their friend in worry.

"Well," Lincoln sighed after a moment of taking in what Lori had told him, "I finally found out why my sisters have been treating me like royalty this past week."

Lori repeated what she had said, louder for the now crowded hallway. Lincoln sighed as she said this.

"So," He muttered, "You didn't think to TALK to me about this? Maybe try and get to the bottom of what was going on? AGAIN, you just went behind my back, assuming you knew what was best for me?"

The girls looked guilty as a few people glared at them.

"Ok," Lincoln sighed, "I've been fighting it long enough, so I no longer feel like I'm gonna black out from the pain in my knee. While one of you nice officers calls a paramedic," He paused to send the cops in front of him a look that said he was telling, not asking, "We're gonna deal with the TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT events that are going on here, got it?"

Everyone, including the sisters, nodded. The head officer stated into his walkie that he needed a paramedic on sight, nothing serious, just a bad knee injury.

"So, incident 1: Chandler," Lincoln gestured to the popular jerk, "He and I were assigned a big History project together. We had to each give 50% on the project, otherwise we would both fail. Well, he outright told me that he expected me to do all the work and give him most of the credit, seeing as he's "entitled" to it."

"I am," Chandler said, "I'm the coolest kid in school." Everyone, including the redhead's friends, rolled their eyes at that.

"Anyway, that flash drive," Lincoln pointed to the small device at the head officer's feet, "Contains video proof that I did my share, and enough to pass. I was gonna show it to Chandler and let him know that I would be passing while he would be failing. I'll admit I was a little nervous about him retaliating, but I decided to just go for it." Lincoln sighed as he looked right at his sisters, "So NO, I was not about to shoot Chandler. I don't even have a gun."

"Ok," Luna spoke up, "But what about your audio diary? In it you said you feel inferior to all of us and that you were planning on using Rusty's dad's gun on yourself within the next month. So naturally we figured you would off Chandler then do it. Rusty even confirmed that his dad's gun isn't in their safe."

A gasp from everyone rose up; everyone, that is, except for Clyde and Ronnie Anne, as they already knew about the audio diary.

"That's because," Rusty stepped forward, "Every Friday before work, my dad takes his gun to the shooting range. I was gonna tell Lucy that, but she hung up before I could."

Everyone shot the Gothic Loud a look, and she shrugged sheepishly.

"Ok," Lori spoke up, "So no gun. But that audio diary clearly stated you're feeling suicidal!"

"I can answer that!" A lean, middle-aged gentleman stepped forward. He had light-brown hair, piercing blue eyes, and was wearing what looked like a director's beret on his head. "I am Nathan Ewing, head of the Royal Wood's Drama Club. I came here a couple weeks ago looking to see if any kids at this school would like to join my club. I only had a few volunteers, with your brother being one of them."

"Remember Spring Cleaning Day?" Lincoln asked, at which his sisters nodded, "Well, after Mom found out how well I covered for you all with them and Pop-Pop, she said I had to join the Drama Club. I was originally gonna wait till next year, but then Mr. Ewing came here and announced tryouts, so I figured I'd give it a shot."

"Ok, but what does that have to do with your audio diary?" Lola asked, confused.

"Let me answer that question with a question," Mr. Ewing spoke up, "Have any of you ever watched a show about kids in school, and there was an episode where the kids put on a play? A play that was so good, one parent in the audience would turn to another and say, "This is surprisingly good for an elementary school play"? And it would be, meaning the actors portraying these kids had been acting since they were babies, as opposed to actual kids just putting on a school play. You all know what I'm talking about?" Most of the adults in the room nodded, as did a few of the kids. "Well, that's what I want. I get that all the kids at this school are newbies when it comes to acting, so they're not going to give Shakespearean performances during their first plays. However, I need to see they are SERIOUS!" At this, he paused and sighed dramatically.

"I remember back in middle school, my first year I was in the drama club with about 10 other people. I loved it, and came back the next year with half of the original kids. That year, we were told we could go to the empty warehouse down the block to not only show our plays, but also do our after-school rehearsals. Well, since it now became a "field trip", we actually had another 2 dozen kids join. Sadly, because our school was right in the middle of a housing district, between the suburbs and a couple cul-de-sacs, we only had one bus-make that one HALF-SIZED bus-because the superintendent decided that since we were in an "easy location", kids could either walk or get their parents to drop them off. So, long story short, AFTER the practices at the warehouse were canceled, all of those new kids dropped out. It never really sat well with me. So, when I became head of the town's Drama Club, I decided I was only going to allow people to join who were truly serious about drama and theatre. Not allowing any kids who just wanna "show up and hang out" at my theater."

"So, he had everyone auditioning record a realistic fictional monologue," Lincoln (now propped up against the lockers) spoke up, "I'll admit there are times when I've felt depressed in the past, but only once have I even CONSIDERED ending it; never actually done anything to do it. But, since there are still times I feel like the black sheep of the family, I figured I would use it for the audio diary. I spent all day Sunday thinking over the bad times we've had as a family, times you've mocked me, times we were at each other's throats, and times where you guys have shown me up. Then, I poured it all out into that audio diary. I was quite satisfied with it. Then, at lunch on Monday, I gave it to Mr. Ewing, who loved it so much that he said I was in."

"Ok," Lana spoke up, "But back to Chandler, when you and Rusty were talking the other day, he said today you would be known as the kid who doesn't take nothin' from nobody. That didn't exactly sound like telling one guy off."

"That's why I'm busy tonight," Lincoln sighed, looking at Mr. Ewing.

"I was really impressed by Lincoln's monologue, so I gave him a piece for tonight to put on for some old friends of mine. It's a 20-minute one man play titled…" He pulled out a rolled-up piece of paper from his pocket and rolled it out, showing it to the crowd, as well as the camera man.

 _ **BULLIED AND NEGLECTED PAST THE BREAKING POINT, HE'S HAD ENOUGH. FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, Lincoln Loud IS…**_

 _ **THE KID WHO DOESN'T TAKE NOTHIN' FROM NOBODY**_

 **Underneath the title and description was Lincoln, clutching a fist and looking downward, squeezing his eyes shut.**

"It's just a little show to give Lincoln a start in the acting world," Mr. Ewing explained, "I told him he was welcome to invite his family and friends, but he said he wanted to see if he was actually any good before his loved ones saw it."

"I told Clyde about it, and word got around, so most of my friends were aware of what I was doing," Lincoln explained, as a paramedic finally pushed his was through the crowd and began working on the white-haired child's leg, "But I was too nervous that if I told you guys, you would meddle and try to get involved, so…" He looked down at his leg, which was being set.

"Sorry, bro," Luna said, as the sisters looked at the ground.

"Ok," The head officer spoke up, looking at Lincoln, "So, just to clarify: you, Lincoln Loud, have NO plans to be involved in any type of school shooting on this day, or any day for that matter?"

"Correct," Lincoln nodded, "This is all one big misunderstanding involving 2 separate incidents, as well as my sisters being nosy."

"Very well," The officer nodded, before turning back to the girls, "As for you ladies…"

* * *

 _"_ … _so the whole thing was just a big misunderstanding. Thank goodness!" The news reporter sighed in relief as she continued, "Lincoln Loud will face no punishment, due to his involvement of this incident being unintentional. However, he did have to postpone his one-man play due to his knee injury, which will take a couple weeks to heal. As for his sisters, for causing a panic, they have each been given 50 hours of community service. In other news…"_

Lori turned off the TV as Dad called the kids in for dinner. Lucy helped Lincoln get there, due to being in a wheelchair until his leg was well enough that he could walk on it again.

As the family sat around the table, things were, of course, awkward. Upon learning the truth, Mom and Dad had been furious at their daughters for jumping to conclusions. Though, in their defense, the girls argued that all of it seemed pretty real, especially going over how they had been treating their brother lately. After thinking it over for a minute, the two said they would decide their daughters' punishment at dinner.

"So," Rita sighed, "In the next 2 months, you girls are required to complete 50 hours of mandated community service. Your father and I have decided that you will be grounded until your community service is over."

"Come on!" Most of the girls complained. However, Lisa spoke up, "Siblings, our parental units have merely stated that we are grounded until we complete our city-mandated punishment. Therefore, if we work together, we can knock it out in no time. I suggest either picking up trash on the freeway or volunteering at Pop-Pop's nursing home. While both are tedious, they would keep us busy enough that the time would fly by. And, if we work 6.5 hours a day on both weekend days off, we can be finished in one month."

The girls thought it over for a moment, before nodding. They all then turned to Lincoln.

"We're really sorry about this, Linc," Luan said, rubbing her neck.

"Yeah, we butted in to your personal business, and look where it got us," Luna sighed.

"However," Lori spoke up, gaining everyone's attention, "Despite this going horribly wrong, we did mean everything we said. You're a great brother, Lincoln, and we all wanna be better sisters to you and each other."

The others all spoke up in agreement, nodding and smiling towards their brother.

Lincoln, who had been silent up to this point, sighed and looked at his sisters with a disinterested look…that slowly became a smile, "Guys, I wanna say thanks. You may have spied on me, smothered me with annoying amounts of affections, caused a panic, and gave me a serious injury…but you did it with love. I'll admit there are times when it gets hard, but I always try to keep my head up."

Everyone smiled at that as they ate dinner. Due to the stress of the day, Mom and Dad had decided to order pizza, despite the girls being grounded.

As they chowed down, Lincoln explained that due to his leg injury, he would probably have to wait until the summer before he could be in the Drama Club again; thankfully Mr. Ewing said his spot would be saved. The girls expressed their interest in seeing their brother in a play, which Lincoln was grateful for.

Over the next couple of weeks, Lori and Luna would take turns carrying Lincoln up and down the stairs, until he was able to move from his chair to crutches. The girls did their mandated community service, with Clyde and Ronnie Anne keeping Lincoln company while the girls were busy. He also played with Lily, the only sister who didn't have community service, due to being a baby.

On the girls' last day of community service/grounding, Lincoln, whose leg was now mostly healed, was playing a video game. The girls were due home any minute, and then it would be dinner time. As he played, he looked towards the audience, "If you ever feel like life sucks, remember there is someone who cares. And if you think a loved one is suicidal, gently confront them over it; better to get it out in the open than to sneak around. Still, even though I had to temporarily drop out of the Drama Club and deal with this knee injury, it's nice knowing my sisters care enough to try and make me feel better." At that, Lincoln smiled as he heard Vanzilla pull up.

* * *

 **So yes, it was all a big misunderstanding. Our favorite white-haired Loud is not gonna kill himself or anyone else.**

 **Mr. Ewing was named after my drama teacher Mrs. Ewing; I didn't wanna use her specifically, so I made an OC based off of her.**

 **I'm not sure EXACTLY how community service works, though I think the way I explained it, the girls having 2 months to complete 50 hours, makes sense, seeing as they are minors in school.**

 **Hope you enjoyed, planning on working on my Shared Universe and more LH stuff next :)**


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